The Girl Who Stole the Sunlight

The world had grown dim. The sun flickered each dawn, struggling to rise. Crops withered. Shadows lingered long after sunset.

In the last surviving village, a child named Nira climbed the mountain where the sun was said to sleep. Her grandmother had told her stories of the Light Keeper, a spirit who guarded the world’s warmth.

At the summit, she found a broken mirror and a single ray trapped inside it, trembling like a bird. She caught it in a glass jar.

When she returned home, the villagers scolded her — but that night, her jar shone so brightly that flowers bloomed again.

The climax: The sun dimmed completely days later. The world froze — except where Nira’s jar glowed. She climbed back up, opened it, and released the ray.

The sky caught fire with dawn once more.

In the new sunlight, people found her footprints leading upward — but none returning. Every sunrise since has a faint shimmer, as if a child’s laughter still echoes inside it.